Win & Out

In European eyes, badminton is not a game at which Americans are likely to be championship contenders. The Danes were Europe's best. Then last winter, a handful of Malayans showed up and swept just about everything in sight. Last week in Copenhagen, the experts revised their view of Americans.

In Idraetshuset gymnastic hall, Danes and their guests watched in astonishment as a blond Californian ran the badminton trunks off Malaya's great Ooi Teik Hock in the final of the Copenhagen Open. Pasadena-born Dr. Dave Freeman, 28, had not lost a singles match in ten years, but the Europeans had considered most of his victories minor-league stuff, scored against so-so U.S. opposition. In Copenhagen, he was playing in badminton's big league.

Puppets at Play. As the feathered shuttlecock darted back & forth, Dave Freeman, who specializes as a doctor in neurosurgery, kept up his usual flow of chatter, most of it addressed to himself: "Stupid --wake up!" "Oh Dave--how could you!"

It was obvious that slender (148 Ibs.) Dave Freeman was no classic stylist. His smash was somewhat less than devastating, his wrist-flick deception shots not the game's most subtle or varied. But like Bitsy Grant, the once-mighty mite of tennis, he made incredible gets. His knees were always scratched and bloody after a tough match.

Freeman's college-boy manners camouflage what friendly U.S. badminton rivals call a "mean streak inside." In the early stages of a match, he sometimes rejects a wide-open chance for a kill, so that he can soften up his opponent by running him to death. Against Ooi Teik Hock, whose forte was also patience and consistency, Dave Freeman concentrated on outlasting his opponent. He won the first set, 15-11, lost the second, 14-18.

With both players exhausted, Freeman still had uncanny control of his serve, a shot that lobs skyward for 30 feet or so, then plummets to earth so dead on the base line that opponents frequently let it drop thinking it will be outside--and it almost never is. The score in the third set crept to 15-all. After winning one point, Freeman put what remaining strength he had left into a final smash. Ooi Teik Hock went down, 17-15.

Mr. Badminton. Since a Japanese American introduced him to badminton 14 years ago, Dave Freeman has been a talented athletic radical. After winning the National Junior Tennis Championship at 17 (he beat Ted Schroeder and Jake Kramer consistently in those days), he gave up big-time tennis because practicing bored him. Although he was besieged with athletic scholarships, he paid his own way to attend Pomona College, then went on to Harvard Medical School. Beginning in 1939, playing when the mood suited him and following no training rules, he was Mr. Badminton in the U.S.

Last winter, in Britain for further study in neurology, Freeman got his first crack at Ooi Teik Hock in the Thomas Cup matches (badminton's equivalent of the Davis Cup). He beat the champ in what many a badminton fan thought to be a fluke win. Last week, after proving it was no fluke, Dave Freeman made an announcement: he was through with big-league tournament badminton. Henceforth he would play only for fun.

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